The time to address gun violence in our country is now. Every country in the world has people with mental illnesses. Every country in the world has violence. Only the United States has mass shootings at schools over and over again.

The problem is guns. This is not a partisan issue; many Republicans favor stricter background checks and a ban on assault rifles. But Congress has failed time and again to protect our children, due in large part to very sizeable donations to their campaigns from the NRA.